September 2011

September 18, 2011

Years ago, I ended up in embroiled in a hassle with a customer in a separate business venture because of an unfortunate path taken by an email I had written. The condensed version of this is that the company with which I was working as an independent contractor had received a complaint about the way I had spoken to this person, as well as about my general approach to servicing this individual. The background (admittedly, my side here) is that the customer was one of the most extraordinarily difficult with whom I’d ever had the displeasure of working in all of my years as a professional, and I will confess that my demeanor and decorum, while certainly not poor (again, in my own opinion), was not what it normally is.

Anyway, one thing led to another, and my supervisor in all of this asked for an email from me so that he could get my take on the whole matter. Understanding that this was to be a sharing of private thoughts between the two of us, I used the opportunity, in part, to vent, in no uncertain terms, about the difficulties I’d been having with this person.

What do you suppose he did next? He forwarded the email to the customer directly – not intentionally, but carelessly.

What followed was a full-blown firestorm, as you can well imagine. Now, I could blame that supervisor for having done something so stupid as to have, quite mindlessly, forwarded an email without review (yes, he later admitted he didn’t even read it) that he knew full well was intended as a private communication between the two of us. The truth is I’m still a little irritated at him for having done what he did, as inadvertent as it may have been; he had a well-deserved reputation for being a bit too laid-back, so it was perhaps in keeping with his inattention to detail that this happened. HOWEVER, in the light of day, and after all amends had been made and lots of pride had been swallowed, I had to admit that the root cause of all my problems here was that I had chosen to put what I did in an email in the first place. What I should have done, even when he was asking for my thoughts in a forum that was ostensibly between the two of us, was to pretend that the customer would eventually read the email (which obviously happened, anyway).

I had learned my lesson, and learned it the hard way, which is sometimes the best way. In business, you will always come across that occasional customer who is exceedingly difficult – it happens; and there is nothing unnatural about even harboring a few hard feelings toward that person. Doing so is surely not in keeping with “the better angels of our nature,” as termed by Lincoln, but it is a perfectly understandable, human way of being, given the circumstances. However, at no time should those hard feelings ever see the light of day in a business forum of any kind. Nothing constructive ever comes from their expression, while a lot that is destructive can.

The other thing you have to remember is that, in this day and age, your communication may easily come to be viewed by more than just the offended party. The recipient may decide to forward your email to lots of other places, or post it somewhere public, or otherwise use the evolutions of the digital age to bring a lot of attention to just what a horrible person you at least appear, by virtue of that email, to be.

Problems like that on a personal level, while distressing, can pale in comparison to what the offenses can cost your business. As (fairly) smart and as disciplined, and even as usually decorous as I can be…I’m still human, and in the end, being human is something we have to guard against, as much as embrace, in the workplace environment.

Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) and the unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press).

September 11, 2011

There are a lot of reasons why jobs are presently evaporating in the United States..most evil, some not so much; uncooperative corporate tax rates, a government that works daily to foist a globalist view on Americans, and companies that are all too happy to shore up their bottom lines by moving overseas (moves that are, admittedly, sometimes influenced by aspects of the aforementioned) are but a few of the more insidious reasons for the mass disappearances, while the ongoing technological evolution that allows companies to continually do more with less is an example of reasons that are impactful but not necessarily rooted in ideological agendas.

That said, immediate, personal survival becomes our most pressing consideration when it’s at stake; the grander issues have to be addressed, as well, and sooner rather than later, but if we’re not able to function at the individual level, none of that can be prosecuted.

I largely agree with the idea that a pronouncement, made to all those without jobs currently, to “simply” move to where the jobs are, is unrealistic, but also less than accurate is a generalization that no one can move to where the jobs are, either.

There will always be people who cannot make such a change, for a variety of understandable reasons: poor health, inability to sell a home, and a variety of other factors that serve as weighty anchors to one’s present location. However, we all know full well that are also plenty of other people who do have the wherewithal to make a such a move…and yet the serious consideration to do so never enters their realms of consciousness.

What do we like to say is the definition of insanity? That it is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result? Well, if you live in a given area, have a given background, a given education…and none of those things changes…why would you expect to be any better off in three months, or six months, or even two years, than you are today? As for the risks associated with taking such a step, those have largely been mitigated in the Internet age; the ability to research prospects, communicate with people and firms, and even interview live through web-based technologies, all before even pulling a single suitcase down from the attic, has significantly lessened many of the uncertainties once intrinsically associated with making such a move.

Over and over again, we see families that actually have the ability to move but do not even consider it, because they “have no desire to uproot kids,” they “love their friends and neighbors,” they “can’t imagine leaving,” etc. Noted; however, by no coherent metric do those considerations outweigh the need for absolute survival, do they?

I recently spoke to a headhunter who specializes in the manufacturing management and engineering sectors, and she flat-out said there is a distinct manpower shortage she’s trying to fill in states like Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota. They are not, by any means, what any of us generally think of as the “glamour” states, but just what should the totem pole of priorities look like for a dangerously unemployed person?

Economic relocation is not for everyone, and no sensible person would claim that it is. Beyond that, it is offensive that so many even have to consider that prospect, given the grander-scale reasons why we’re in this mess. That said, relocation is for some people, and in the interest of living today in order to be able to fight tomorrow, it can be an awfully good idea.

Bob Yetman, Editor-at-Large at Christian Money.com (www.christianmoney.com), is an author of a variety of materials on personal finance and investing, as well as on topics of fitness and self defense, to include the book Investor's Passport to Hedge Fund Profits (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) and the unarmed combat training DVD Thunderstrikes - How to Develop One Shot, One Kill Striking Power (Paladin Press).